Growing on Purpose

Have you ever done anything by accident that turned out well?

Richard James did in 1945. He was trying to invent a spring that would help balance out sensitive instruments on the rough seas in a ship. Instead, he invented the Slinky toy. In over 60 years, he has produced over 300 million of these “mistakes”… Fortunately for him the mistake proved to be a great idea.

As I travel the country, I meet with many business owners that fall into the category of this article, they are growing by mistake. That is why I wrote my #1 Amazon Best Selling book, Growing on Purpose. They tend to be passionate about their company, excited about their product and/or service and have devoted everything to make their company a success. Yet, there is still something missing.

The formula that I have learned and implemented with companies around the country is simple – (ST + ICE = P) Strengthening the Team + Improving the Customers Experience = Profit.

The three main components of your business are your team, your product/service and your customer. Most companies are dialed into their product, less on their customers and even less on the team.

If you are struggling with providing a good customer experience, chances are that your team needs improvement. Right now, if you have a 10-person team, the national statistics show that only three of them come to work engaged. The rest are not engaged and need some guidance. As business owners and leaders, this is our biggest and most daunting task, to get the other 7 to be engaged.

The key to employee engagement is connection. When the individual feels disconnected from the team, they tend to disengage. And when they disengage, they tend to provide a poor customer experience.

How can I grow on purpose, rather than by mistake? Here are some quick tips to help you:

Make sure that your team knows why the company exists – companies whose employees understand the missions and goals enjoy a 29% greater return that other firms.

Make sure that they know individually why they are there – job descriptions and organizational charts will move the team forward.

Make sure that you are offering regular feedback – regular performance reviews are critical in team and individual success.

Instill trust in the team – Gallup revealed that without trust on the team, the likelihood of the team engagement is 1 in 12, and when there is team trust, it goes to 1 in 2.

Catch them doing something right – look for things that they are doing fantastic, rather than finding flaws.

If you lead a team, do yourself, your team and your customer a favor and find ways to connect with them and make sure that they connect with each other. If you would like, Six things that Engaging Leaders do, please ask for this at dave@positivepolarity.com and I will gladly send this to you as my gift to you

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